Elizabeth Smart

I don't normally address serious issues on this blog, but something happened today that definitely warrants a STFD shout out. Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper was found guilty.

I remember being in Los Angeles working on Music Videos and seeing the news break about Elizabeth being taken from her home. It was on CNN every day. I remember so many close calls being reported and speculation that she was still alive even though that seemed a small possibility considering the statistics involving kidnapping victims and their survival rates after the first few days.

I can't even begin to imagine the fear that a shy, quiet, religious, 14 year old girl must have felt being taken and held like that. Then, all the close calls. Hearing people yell your name in the woods searching for you. An actual police officer not lifting the veil you were concealed under. The FBI not following up on a tip regarding your location. Every day... just thinking this is your life now, you'll never see your family again. That heartbreak is beyond my comprehension.

My friends and I were as obsessed with Elizabeth as the rest of the nation at the time she went missing. So many months passed though, and it seemed like she would just fade away. I will never forget the call from my Producer at the time, 9 months after she was taken. "They found her! Alive!" was all she said into the phone and I knew exactly who she meant. I had never met her, her family, or anyone who knew her, but tears of relief rolled down my face.

Maybe it was relief caused by seeing the grief her family was going through on the news and knowing it had ended. Hearing them say "maybe if I hadn't burned dinner and needed to open a window. Maybe if I had locked that kitchen window, my child would be her right now" was excruciating. Maybe it was relief because a 14 year old girl could go on with her life, even if that life had drastically changed, she could go back to playing the harp and go to high school and college. Maybe it was because I remember nightmares when I was little about being separated from my Mom or lost and the absolute fear that strikes you if you feel you are missing and beyond finding. Maybe it was imagining it was my child and not knowing how I would go on with a moment of my life without searching for them, driving around looking for them, doing anything I could to find them. Whatever it was, I don't know that I had ever been more happy for a family as the Smart's that day she came home.

Now, 8 years later, Elizabeth finally sees justice. Just like I can't imagine the fear she must have felt being taken, I struggle to grasp the courage it took her to survive that 9 months of her life and the determination it took to sit in a courtroom with that man and describe the experience with calm clarity so that he would finally be punished. She could have gone on living and let the system handle him however they wanted. She could have been too ashamed to have spoken up and told her story about being raped on a daily basis. She could have lost her cool and broken down or been too afraid to testify. She could have decided to block out all those terrible memories all together. She could have just given up in 2002.

She didn't. And because Elizabeth Smart had the balls to endure the last 8 years like she did, hopefully Brian David Mitchell never sees freedom again. Behind the harp, the blond hair, the big blue eyes and the angel face, Elizabeth Smart is a real fucking badass.